The “abysmal” state of free speech at Canadian public universities is stifling students’ right to speak their minds, according to a new report card that gives mostly failing grades to universities and their student unions.

The 2012 Campus Freedom Index (download PDF), released Wednesday by the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, awarded only three A’s to 35 universities and student unions it analyzed in its second annual report. A grade of ‘F’ was far more common — handed out 28 times to 12 universities and 16 student unions for everything from cancelling controversial speakers and obstructing pro-life groups to banning the expression “Israeli Apartheid.”

“Everyone’s forced to pay for these universities through tax dollars and the universities get the money in part by claiming to be these centres of free inquiry,” said JCCF president John Carpay, who co-authored the report. “It’s fundamentally dishonest for the university to go…